The How This Works show

Zolt Levay is a photographer who has produced astronomical images from the Hubble Space Telescope and has spent a career describing the process of producing engaging color images from Hubble data. Now, he has his sights set on matters closer to home, working on more terrestial matters. During this conversation, Skipper and Zolt talk about how images are produced from the Hubble Space Telescope, the importance of being curious, how professional telescopes don't "see" in color, the size of 24 million soda straws, Ansel Adams, the notion of time travel, and his more recent hobby of astrophotography. Stay tuned until the end for a clip on how to pronounce Zolt's first and last name the Hungarian way.Special Guest: Zolt Levay.Links:Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)The NASA Hubble Space TelescopeRGB color modelThe Pillars of CreationCarina NebulaAnsel AdamsSky & Telescope - astrophotography tipsCloudyNights.comMauna Kea ObservatoriesCerro Tololo Inter-American ObservatoryAurora at Yellowknife, CanadaThe NASA James Webb Space TelescopeZolt Levay's photography siteZolt Levay's 2015 TEDx talk

The last time we talked with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, it was Dec 2020. Now, it's May 2022 — 17 months later. A lot has changed and in some ways it feels like nothing has changed. This time around, we get into current details around coronavirus/COVID, what's happening now/the current state, and what the future looks like. We recorded this episode over two sessions and along the way we get into many topics, including the notion of reinfections (more and more common with Omicron), how the testing numbers may not reflect actual cases with more and more home testing (and some people not testing at all), how an at-home test is different than a PCR test, and the current slate of variants — BA.1, BA.2, BA2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5, XE, etc. We also touch on COVID therapies including Paxlovid, an oral antiviral treatment, and Evusheld, monoclonal antibodies. As well, we talked about some of what Dr. Chin-Hong is concerned about in the future — including avian flu and influenza along with the idea that diseases like valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) have been creeping up over the last few years because we as humans are settling into areas (more rural, for instance) that large groups of us haven't been before. And then, we end the show by talking about his work as a professor of medicine and educator at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — what teaching medicine has looked like the last few years with students (and teachers) as little blobs on a screen. Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a longer bit about the flu that didn't really have a place anywhere else.Special Guest: Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.Links:SF Chronicle: How California’s COVID numbers compare to the last time its mask mandate was liftedPBS News Hour: Dr. Fauci on why the U.S. is ‘out of the pandemic phase’ — Originally posted Apr 26, 202213 things to know about Paxlovid, the latest COVID-19 pillThe Guardian: Why are there so many new Omicron subvariants, like BA.4 and BA.5? Is the virus mutating faster?The Commonwealth Fund: Impact of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts: An Update on Averted Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Health Care Costs Through March 2022Evusheld Antibody Treatment for COVID-191918-1920 flu epidemicFaculty Interview: Peter Chin-Hong, MDPeter Chin-Hong Explores Identity and History in 2021 Last Lecture

Recorded in their child's bedroom on a weekday, Laura and Skipper chat about his academic background in writing (English literature, playwriting) as well as his professional background as a product design director (think desktop and mobile apps among other mediums) and how that plays into storytelling, most recently resulting in the creation of How This Works, this podcast. They also talk about their life together — newsflash: they're married and living in the San Francisco Bay area, having moved from New York City a couple of years ago. Along the way, they get into some of the differences between life in SF and NYC. They also talk about their upcoming wedding anniversary after getting married next to Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Along with talk about his name change from Starr to Skipper (and not Optimus Prime) at the age of seven, they bring in a few questions posed from the listening audience including lessons learned from the first season of the show, calling people the name they want to be called, how crucial listening is in making a podcast, the ubiquity of imposter syndrome, using the five (5) whys to get to the root cause of a challenge as developed by Sakichi Toyoda at the Toyota Motor Corporation, team falling asleep during movies versus team staying awake during movies, and why Skipper color codes versus alphabetizing the books in his background — see photo below. View of the three shelves behind Skipper's standing desk Laura and Skipper also reference the following previous episodes, in order of being published, including: Jack Kahana, the first episode Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, the third episode Selena Rosanbalm, the sixth episode Cassandra Carlopio, the 15th episode Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel from 21Seeds, the 17th episode Sally McRae, the 18th episode Piper Payne, the 20th episode Stay tuned after the outro music for a bit of tape where Skipper pauses for a bit of background noise and how from where Laura's sitting, the microphone makes it looks like his nose is a black bit of foam.Special Guest: Skipper Chong Warson.Links:American Museum of Natural History in New York CityHow to move across the country with design thinking, pt. 1 of 2How to move across the country with design thinking, pt. 2 of 2Making "Black Sabbath" and "Paranoid"Design Voices from Fjord‎Fjord Fika on Apple podcastsImposter syndromeStarbar"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm GladwellJane's Carousel1922 Ohio carousel in Brooklyn besieged by SandyDetermine The Root Cause: 5 WhysWhy do many mistakenly think human blood is sometimes blue?SNL season 46 finale cold open - What I Remember About this Year‎John Wick (2014)‎The Matrix (1999)Keanu ReevesThe Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+‎The Mosquito Coast (1986)The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux‎The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)‎Wireframe with Adobe’s Khoi VinhInvisibilia from NPR99% InvisibleAdrianne Lenker (from Big Thief)PrinceJapanese BreakfastBillie EilishBTSBTS performs 'Fix You' (Coldplay cover) from MTV UnpluggedBLACKPINKCustom lathe cut vinyl records from Vinylus"St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen RussellIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Tomorrow, we're recording the last episode of the first season where we turn the tables and Skipper's wife Laura asks him the questions. Go to Instagram @howthisworksshow to reply directly to the story or email us at howthisworksshow@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

Skipper talks to Sarah Sudhoff about how she works as an artist, her background as a photographer, arts administrator, and photo editor — and how all of that plays into her work today. Recorded late on a Sunday night, Skipper and Sarah talk about her identity as being half Cuban, how she got her first camera in the fifth grade, how being in a military family influenced her world and personality at a young age, being both the science nerd and the jock, and how she studied astronomy in college before she decided to pursue photography as her bachelor's degree — though she'd really like to work with NASA still. Following that, she worked for Citysearch before landing at Time magazine and received a M.F.A. in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York. We get into how she wears many hats as an artist, how she multi-tasks as a single parent in her home life, how she collaborates in her work with others, and the necessary resilience of applying for as well as receiving/being rejected for exhibitions, grants, endowments, and fellowships. She and Skipper also talk about the notion of making daunting life decisions at 19 versus 29 or 39. We also talk about several of her works in particular: Point of Origin, her most recent El Recuerdo project which started as a response to Deborah Brown’s paintings but then evolved to be a tribute to her grandmother and Sarah's biracial heritage, The Reading Brain, 60 Pounds of Pressure, Will You Hug me Forever, and her upcoming work Labor Pains. Video from El Recuerdo: Rope by Sarah Sudhoff Video from El Recuerdo: Water by Sarah Sudhoff Sarah says that she's finally feeling worthy to apply for a Guggenheim and MoMA this year — to which we say, Break a leg! When pressed, she talks about how art is hard and her advice for her two children if they wanted to go into some kind of artistic profession. Stay tuned for a bit after the outro music where after Skipper rambles on for a bit and Sarah asks simply, What's the question?Special Guest: Sarah Sudhoff.Links:WAVESErika BlumenfeldRick WilliamsThe Daily TexanRick StengelParsonsSorority RushAnnie LeibovitzJames NachtweyAndrew HetheringtonPoint of OriginDr. James "Red" DukeDeborah Brown: Nomad ExquisiteEl RecuerdoEl Recuerdo: RopeWill You Hug Me Forever60 Pounds of PressureThe Reading BrainNancy Littlejohn Fine ArtJohn Simon Guggenheim Foundation - How to Apply"Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s" by Kathy O'Dell Audiobook of "Becoming Supernatural" by Dr Joe DispenzaAudiobook of "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" by Dr Joe DispenzaSarah SudhoffIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

This week, Skipper chats with Piper Payne, an audio mastering engineer. Currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, Piper starts off the episode with her professional introduction and then tells us "who she actually" is, including her being originally a Midwesterner, having three dogs, being an Aries, and her love of cheeseburgers. We talk about how if she wasn't a mastering engineer, she might be in some form of construction or maybe a carpenter. We get into how she's a drummer, starting when she was a "shrimpy kid", her technical music studies at the University of Michigan and then her graduate work in Norway, and working under Bob Katz and Michael Romanowski. Then, Piper dives into how she calibrates her mastering console with sine tones and noise, how music is mastered from a high level, her growing up on young country, her love of top 40 pop music, how vinyl records are made (think waffles), how musicians get paid (in the past and more recently), and the potential of non-fungible tokens to help artists get paid for their work as well as keep better track and make decisions about their efforts to tour, promote, and construct release plans. We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a mastering engineer, how it's not alchemy. Below is a snapshot of the record shelves Piper mentions on the show as something she built recently that she's proud of: Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper work out the right way to introduce Piper as an audio mastering engineer or a mastering engineer.Special Guest: Piper Payne.Links:AmplitudeFrequency balance or equalizationStereo imaging or stereophonic sound "If you're into vinyl, there might be tough times ahead" from Global News"How a fire in the Inland Empire could spell doom for the worldwide vinyl LP boom" from The Los Angeles Times"'This Is Disastrous': How the Vinyl Industry Is Responding to the Apollo Masters Fire" from Rolling Stone"Out Of The Apollo Masters Fire Emerges The Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association Of North America" from Forbes"Respect" as written by Otis Redding, performed and made infamous by Aretha Franklin on her double vinyl album, "Aretha"Beyoncé’s "Lemonade" Vinyl Mispressed With Songs by Canadian Punk Band Zex"Inside the Dirty Business of Hit Songwriting" from VarietyApple Music tells artists it now pays double than Spotify per stream"What is an NFT, and How Could it Help the Music Industry? A Guide" from Mixmag"So You Want to Mint an NFT: A Guide for Artists & Music Execs" from BillboardZoe Keating on "What Should I do about YouTube?"Zoë Keating's bioInfrasonic SoundChef, Restaurateur Sean Brock at HuskIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

This episode of How This Works addresses adult subject matters and contains adult language. This week, Skipper chats with Kait Scalisi, a certified sex educator who founded Passion by Kait. They engage in a wide-ranging conversation that explores so many areas — including shame, communication, and how pleasure is really powerful as a healing force. And there's so much under the surface as well, like how some people carry their disabilities in plain sight, the concept of accessible design, how she started doing this work, how with sex there's no such thing as "normal", a lightweight formula around how to talk about sex with your partner, her delight in the concept of verbal consent is showing up in romance novels, consent culture and the underlying sentiment to act first, apologize later, #notallmen, Resmaa Menakem on the notion of somatic abolitionism, and assumptions that Kait has had to work against as a sex educator. Stay tuned after the outro music for a pause for sirens in Kait's New York City sound background, an ever present aural reminder of the big city. Skipper misses it.Special Guest: Kait Scalisi.Links:How to start a conversation about sexHow to have successful conversations about sex/fix failed onesHolistic sex educationNervous system support"Would I Lie to the Duke" by Eva Leigh — The romance novel that Kait mentions with a subby (read: submissive) duke"My Grandmother's Hands" by Resmaa MenakemAndy Polaine on imposter syndromeStop telling women they have imposter syndromeCavedayEpisode with Jake Kahana from CavedayIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

This week, Skipper chats with Sally McRae, a pro runner for Nike and NordicTrack among others. Based in Bend, Oregon, Sally starts off by talking about how she often gets mistaken for a bodybuilder, a cross fitter, and even a cage fighter. She also gets into many more details of her life, including growing up in a family of seven, playing soccer and starting to run because "she knew she had the speed" and then as a way to stay in shape and cross-train, running her first marathon, discovering ultrarunning, running Western States 100 in 2014 (as captured in the short film "Western Time" — linked below), the importance of crew in ultrarunning, and what she thinks is at the heart of the sentiment, "I'm not a runner, or I wasn't made for running, or running is stupid". We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a pro runner, the power of the community around running and ultrarunning, how running long distances with people can get past the polite and light social conversations, dispelling the common thinking that Skipper's name came from Gilligan's Island, why running is painful, needing to take care of yourself first and foremost, how on a 100 mile race that you will stir up something deep, and how some of the events locally and in the world might mirror some darker moments in our lives. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Sally's joy about relocating to the mountains with her family.Special Guest: Sally McRae.Links:Western States 100-mile endurance run"Western Time" — In 2014, Sally McRae ran the Western States 100 — the world’s oldest 100 mile race — for the very first time. This short film by Billy Yang documents her story."The Run-Walk-Run Method" by Jeff GallowayJustice & Mercy International — JMI is a faith-based, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that exists to make justice personal for the poor, the orphaned and the forgotten of the world.Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Today's episode features a conversation with two sisters — Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel — about 21Seeds, their company that makes all-natural, infused tequila. They talk about what they did before starting the company — film work and corporate finance, respectively — when Kat's doctor instructed her to stop drinking fermented spirits like wine, beer, and sake to drink distilled spirits like blanco tequila instead. And after eight years of infusing tequila in her kitchen, Kat enlisted her sister Nicole and their friend, Sarika Singh, to start 21Seeds — the name comes from two friends + one girlfriend with things that are all-natural, that grow from a seed — with a distillery in the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico run and staffed by women whose hours coincide with school schedules, so the moms don’t have to pay for childcare. The sisters talk about the three tiers set up by the tied-house rule, why they didn't name the company Casamigas (a play on Casamigos), chill filtration (and how it removes aldehydes), keeping the heart but leaving out the head and tail when distilling alcohol, how you can go blind from moonshine (depending on the how and who's making it), and the differences between flavored and infused liquor. This is an especially fun episode as both sisters keep it light while the conversation moves easily. Nicole and Kat debate which Constitutional amendment made alcohol illegal and which one repealed Prohibition, the dangers of home infusing tequila in a Brita, and how Oprah Winfrey — as a tequila fan and someone who infuses tequila herself — paid the product a high compliment in assuming it was freshly infused. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper trip all over over the pronunciation of Kat's last name. So you all know, Hantas is pronounced like Pocahontas or haunting.Special Guest: Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel.Links:21SeedsTequila, Jalisco21Seeds makes the OList, June 2020The history of prohibition in the United StatesBridgertonSecond Life podcastHow I Built ThisShark Tank#girlscalltheshotsFind 21SeedsIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

This week, Skipper chats with Laura Sicola, a leadership communication and influence expert, speaker, author of "Speaking to Influence: Mastering Your Leadership Voice" (bookshop link), a coach, and host of the podcast, "Speaking to Influence: Communication Secrets of the C-Suite". But this conversation isn't just for managers or people in the C-suite, it's for anyone who wants to hear yes a bit more in their lives. As Laura says, this subject matter is every bit as "relevant with your coworkers, boss, employee, colleague, client, vendor, or otherwise, as it is with people in your personal life. And it is — whether it's with your spouse, significant other, your children, your neighbors, your friends, and co parishioners at church, temple, mosque, wherever you go, or religious house". We talk about so many things, including her work sitting at the intersection of how language works — or what Laura refers to as the math of language — cognitive processing and language, and social filters; how non-native languages to young kids can feel like a superpower, how some people listen like others wait for the right moment to jump into a double dutch jump rope session, bosses versus leaders, manipulation versus influence, myth-busting one of the most misquoted statistic in communications research, how we all have a prismatic voice, and how authenticity is absolutely essential in how we use our voice. Stay tuned after the outro music for a quick levels check, a peek behind the scenes.Special Guest: Laura Sicola.Links:"Speaking to Influence" by Laura Sicola Virtual Influence courseAlbert Mehrabian"Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell MaltzVocal Impact ProductionsIntro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso